Step One- by Robert Frost
 

I posted this on the nar-anon page, but I love it so much, I'm posting it here, too.


Good-by and Keep Cold
by Robert Frost
(From Harper’s Magazine, July 1920.)


THIS saying good-by on the edge of the dark
And cold to an orchard so young in the bark
Reminds me of all that can happen to harm
An orchard away at the end of the farm
All winter, cut off by a hill from the house.
I don’t want it girdled by rabbit and mouse,
I don’t want it dreamily nibbled for browse
By deer, and I don’t want it budded by grouse.
(If certain it wouldn’t be idle to call
I’d summon grouse, rabbit, and deer to the wall
And warn them away with a stick for a gun.)
I don’t want it stirred by the heat of the sun.
(We made it secure against being, I hope,
By setting it out on a northerly slope.)
No orchard’s the worse for the wintriest storm;
But one thing about it, it mustn’t get warm.
“How often already you’ve had to be told,
Keep cold, young orchard. Good-by and keep cold.
Dread fifty above more than fifty below.”
I have to be gone for a season or so.
My business awhile is with different trees,
Less carefully nourished, less fruitful than these,
And such as is done to their wood with an ax—
Maples and birches and tamaracks.
I wish I could promise to lie in the night
And think of an orchard’s arboreal plight
When slowly (and nobody comes with a light)
Its heart sinks lower under the sod.
But something has to be left to God.

Plowmen
by Robert Frost

(From A Miscellany of American Poetry 1920 [New York, 1920].)


I HEAR men say to plow the snow.
They cannot mean to plant it, though—
Unless in bitterness to mock
At having cultivated rock.

DISOBEDIENCE

James James
Morrison Morrison
Weatherby George Dupree
Took great
Care of his Mother,
Though he was only three.
James James
Said to his Mother,
"Mother", he said, said he;
"You must never go down to the end of the town,
if you don't go down with me."

James James
Morrison's Mother
Put on a golden gown,
James James
Morrison's Mother
Drove to the end of the town.
James James
Morrison's Mother
Said to herself, said she:
"I can get right down to the end of the town and be
back in time for tea"

King John
Put up a notice,
"LOST or STOLEN or STRAYED!
JAMES JAMES
MORRISON'S MOTHER
SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN MISLAID.
LAST SEEN
WANDERING VAGUELY;
QUITE ON HER OWN ACCORD,
SHE TRIED TO GET DOWN TO THE END OF THE TOWN-
FORTY SHILLINGS REWARD!

James James
Morrison Morrison
(Commonly known as Jim)
Told his
Other relations
Not to go blaming _him_.
James James
Said to his Mother,
"Mother", he said, said he:
"You must never go down to the end of the town with-
out consulting me."

James James
Morrison's Mother
Hasn't been heard of since.
King John
Said he was sorry,
So did the Queen and Prince.
King John
(Somebody told me)
Said to a man he knew:
"If people go down to the end of the town, well,
what can anyone do?"

(Now then, very softly)

J. J.
M. M.
W. G. Du P.
Took great
C/o his M*****
Though he was only 3.
J. J.
Said to his M*****
"M*****", he said, said he:
"You-must-never-go-down-to-the-end-of-the-town-if-
you-don't-go-down-with-ME!"

-- A. A. Milne

The above poems are part of my personal step one study. I have at least one poem for every step, and add them to my "notebook" as I run across them. I originally posted this (and the 11 others) hoping people would add other examples they found... or quotes from literature... or just anything that helped them to focus on a step. Alas it never took off. Rejection doesn't bother me... try try again!

Defeat may serve as well as victory
To shake the soul and let the glory out.
When the great oak is straining in the wind,
The boughs drink in new beauty, and the trunk
Sends down a deeper root on the windward side.
Only the soul that knows the mighty grief
Can known the mighty rapture. Sorrows come
to stretch out spaces in the heart for joy.

help

LORD,
help

one tiny word cried with tears
spoken in fear
released in pain.

help

a small word without exclamation point
question mark or
period

just, help

because i find myself lost
caught on the rocks
scratched by the briar

help

as only You can
only You will
only You have

thanks

Ok, everyone. Lets get back to work. Search the web for some poems that relate to step one.

1. We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction, that our lives had become unmanageable.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and I
I took the one less traveled by
and that has made all the difference

Robert Frost

"After A While" by Veronica A. Shoffstall

After a while you learn
The subtle difference between
holding a hand
and chaining a soul
and you learn
that love doesn't always mean security.

And you begin to learn
That kisses aren't contracts and
presents aren't promises
and you begin to accept your defeats
with your head up and your eyes ahead
with the grace of a woman
not the grief of a child.

And you learn
To build all your roads on today
because tomorrow's ground is
too uncertain for plans
and futures have a way of falling down
in mid-flight.

After a while you learn
That even sunshine burns
if you get too much
So you plant your own garden
and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And you learn
that you really can endure
that you really are strong
and you really do have worth
And you learn
and you learn
with every goodbye
you learn...

When I first read this poem, it sounded painful and lonely, but the more I have read it through the years it represents strength and endurance and taking care of ourselves and building our own beauty in life.

P.S. I Love Robert Frost - it's great to see so much of his poetry here.

<small>[ May 21, 2002, 03:58 PM: Message edited by: anns ]</small>

Wind on the Hill
by AA Milne


No one can tell me,
Nobody knows,
Where the wind comes from,
Where the wind goes.
It's flying from somewhere
As fast as it can,
I couldn't keep up with it,
Not if I ran.
But if I stopped holding
The string of my kite,
It would blow with the wind
For a day and a night.
And then when I found it,
Wherever it blew,
I should know that the wind
Had been going there too.
So then I could tell them
Where the wind goes...
But where the wind comes from
Nobody knows.

-from Now We Are Six

The Sentence
by Anna Akhmatova

And the stone word fell
On my still-living breast.
Never mind, I was ready.
I will manage somehow.

Today I have so much to do:
I must kill memory once and for all,
I must turn my soul to stone,
I must learn to live again—

Unless . . . Summer's ardent rustling
Is like a festival outside my window.
For a long time I've foreseen this
Brilliant day, deserted house.

The World Is a Beautiful Place
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't mind happiness
not always being
so very much fun
if you don't mind a touch of hell
now and then
just when everything is fine
because even in heaven
they don't sing
all the time

The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't mind some people dying
all the time
or maybe only starving
some of the time
which isn't half bad
if it isn't you

Oh the world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don't much mind
a few dead minds
in the higher places
or a bomb or two
now and then
in your upturned faces
or such other improprieties
as our Name Brand society
is prey to
with its men of distinction
and its men of extinction
and its priests
and other patrolmen

and its various segregations
and congressional investigations
and other constipations
that our fool flesh
is heir to

Yes the world is the best place of all
for a lot of such things as
making the fun scene
and making the love scene
and making the sad scene
and singing low songs and having inspirations
and walking around
looking at everything
and smelling flowers
and goosing statues
and even thinking
and kissing people and
making babies and wearing pants
and waving hats and
dancing
and going swimming in rivers
on picnics
in the middle of the summer
and just generally
'living it up'
Yes
but then right in the middle of it
comes the smiling
mortician

SOME DAY I'LL BE A FARMER
by Melanie Safka

Someday I'll be a farmer, working the land
I wish I was a farmer, to work with my hands
'Cause it's been too long a ride, too high the fare
Well, I built an-climbed a mountain
But it wasn't there
And I been lookin' all around looked everywhere
Well, I built and climbed a mountain
But it wasn't there
It isn't there, dum ta dum
It isn't here, it isn't there, nor anywhere

I'm gonna pick an apple right from the tree
I'm gonna eat the apple 'cause it grew there for me
And it's been to long a ride, too high the fare
Well, I built an-climbed a mountain
But it wasn't there
And I been lookin' all around, looked everywhere
To build and climb a mountain if it isn't there
It isn't there, dum ta dum
It isn't here, it isn't there, nor anywhere

I wish I was a farmer, working the land
Some day I'll be a farmer to work with my hands
'Cause, it's been too long a ride, too high the fare
You know I built and climbed a mountain
But it wasn't there
And I been lookin' all around, looked everywhere
Well, I built an-climbed a mountain, but it wasn't there
And I been lookin' all around, looked everywhere
To build and climb a mountain if it isn't there
It isn't there, dum ta dum
It isn't here, it isn't there, nor anywhere

I wish I was a farmer, working the land
Some day I'll be a farmer to work with my hands
Hah da da ti da ti dum dum ti dum da da da dum


STEPPIN'
by Melanie Safka

You said you were leavin
And I said go on
I don't know exactly what it is
But something went wrong
It wasn't for nothing
It made a sad rhyme
I'm sorry I saw you
I meant to stay blind

And I'm gonna go out steppin' with my new man tonight
Gonna go out steppin' with my new man tonight

If my mother should ask me where you've gone
Gonna tell her that you joined the Marines
And she'll say c'mon
And then she'll start laughing
And so will I
I'm glad that I'm laughing
It's a good way to die

And I'm gonna go out steppin' with my new man tonight
Gonna go out steppin' with my new man tonight

When I finish my laundry and air out my head
Gonna look for another long-haired man to help me make my bed
You know that I'll miss you, but, strangely I'm glad
Gonna make it without you
And that's what's so sad
Gonna make it alone and that's what sad
Gonna make it alone and that's what sad
'Cause you know that I'll miss you
But strangely I'm glad
Gonna make it alone
And that's what's so sad